Gazelle Bicycle Serial Number

Gazelle Bicycle Serial Number Check

1975 serial numbers were a hand-stamped five number, individual frame ID. They begin at 10001 and continue until early 1976 when a revised stamp begins to include place of manufacture indicated with the letter 'C' ( for Chatsworth, California) followed by the five number individual frame ID.
The fork crown often has a Gazelle cut out, but otherwise the frame is all business with simple long point lugs. 70's and 80's models have the distinctive dutch style wrap around stays which are common to Gazelle frames and dutch built racing frames in general, it appears that Gazelle went to a socket type seat stay lug some time in the early.
With Gazelle you have a choice between mid-drive motor from Bosch and Shimano. Mid-drive motors by Bosch and Shimano are the best electric bike motor systems out in the market. We equip our bikes with the Bosch Performance Line, Bosch Active Line Plus, and Shimano E6000 series.
Guessing at the serial number, but '373' could correspond to March, 1973 and the '54' the frame size, with '6842' being a unit number. That about lines up with the age and size of the frame. The Suntour components are probably later add-ons.

Country: Netherlands: Primary Focus: Bicycle Frames: Years of Operation: 1892 - Current: General Information: While the bulk of the frames produced by Gazelle over the course of its history have been dutch style city bikes, their line of high end racing frames are often considered an under appreciated gem.

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Royal Dutch Gazelle
Private
Industry	Bicycles
Founded	1892
Headquarters	Dieren, Netherlands
Products	Bicycles and Accessories
Number of employees	550
Website	http://www.gazelle.nl

Royal Dutch Gazelle is the largest^[1] and most famous^[2]bicycle manufacturer in the Netherlands. Gazelle employs 550 workers at its factory in Dieren, Netherlands, producing 300,000 bicycles a year. Total production has passed 13 million.

History[edit]

Classic contemporary gents's model

A vintage 1954 Ladies Gazelle

1892-1919[edit]

The company was founded 1892 by Willem Kölling and Rudolf Arentsen.^[3] Initially they sold bicycles imported from England. They started their own production using the Gazelle name in 1902.

1920-1949[edit]

During the period from the 1920s to the 1940s, Gazelle had success exporting bicycles to the East Indies. Many Gazelle bicycles survive throughout Indonesia even today and are a highly sought after Dutch collectors item. During this period, Gazelle was to use the Piet Pelle cartoon character throughout many advertising campaigns. This video from 1925 shows the Gazelle factory and production techniques.

Developments include a collapsible delivery bicycle in 1930 and a tandem bicycle introduced in 1935. An electric bicycle was produced in 1937 together with Philips.

1950-1979[edit]

In 1954 Gazelle became a public company and built its millionth bicycle. In 1959, Gazelle patented the first 3-Speed grip shift gear system.

Gazelle was the first Dutch bicycle manufacturer to introduce the 'Kwikstep' folding bicycle in 1964. The front-hub drum brake was developed in 1968 and is still in production today.

In the mid 1960s Gazelle built a 'Special Racing Division' workshop at their factory in Dieren. In this workshop race frames were handbuilt by skilled craftsmen. At the height of their commercial success (around 1980-85) about 35 people were employed. Gazelle had success with the steel framed 'Champion Mondial' bicycles and sponsored the now infamous TVM racing team. The team folded in 2000 because of a doping scandal.

1980-2009[edit]

The centenary in 1992 coincided with the eighth millionth bicycle produced. Princess Margriet classified the company 'Royal' Gazelle in honor of the anniversary. From then on one million bicycles were produced every three to four years.

In 2009, Gazelle won the Dutch Bike of the Year with the Chamonix Innergy electric bike. This was the first time in the competition's history that an electric bike had won the prestigious award.

2010-Now[edit]

In 2010, Gazelle was voted the most trusted bicycle brand in the Readers Digest annual brand survey in Europe.^[4]

In 2011 Gazelle was acquired by Pon Holdings, co-owner of Cervélo bikes^[5] and importer of Volkswagen in the Netherlands.

References[edit]

^(in Dutch)'Gazelle neemt koppositie over,'Archived 2011-05-09 at the Wayback Machine Tweewieler.nl (28-10-2008).
^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2013-02-22. Retrieved 2009-04-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^http://www.rijwiel.net/gazellee.htm
^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2010-05-07. Retrieved 2010-05-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^Steve Frothingham (February 19, 2012). 'Cervélo's White: We can grow by delivering'. Bicycle Retailer and Industry News. Retrieved February 25, 2012.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gazelle_(bicycle_company)&oldid=933328667'

All bikes¹all have unique serial numbers.

Finding a bicycle serial number

Most bicycles have their serial number engraved beneath their bottom bracket, but sometimes serial numbers are found in other places. Here are some examples of where and what to look for:

The bottom bracket (where serial numbers are typically located) is circled.
A serial number on the underside of a bottom bracket.
Another serial number beneath the bottom bracket, aligned parallel to the frame.
Rad Power bikes have their serial number on the head tube. This is on the front of the bike.
Some Schwinn bicycles also have the unique identifying number (their serial number) on the head tube.
A serial number located on a rear dropout. Some BMX bikes and a few Schwinn bicycles place the serial on the rear dropout. On older Schwinns there are numbers stamped on both the drive side and non-drive side rear dropouts; the one on the non-drive side dropout is the serial number.
Some bikes have multiple serial numbers.²When adding a bike to the Index, it's best to enter all the groups of numbers and letters separated by spaces.

Hopefully you can find the serial number on the bicycle you're looking at - email contact@bikeindex.org if you're having trouble.

Searching serials on Bike Index

Finding bicycles by serial number on Bike Index is a critical part of our functionality. When searching for a serial number, use our serial search bar - it's the second bar on our search form.

We've done a few things to make it more likely that you'll find the bike you're looking for.

Certain numbers and letters are difficult or impossible to distinguish between (e.g. 0 and O, S and 5). We treat all these numbers the same way - a search for 005LLL will match a bike with the serial OOS111.
We split bike serials up by spaces and store each separately. If you see multiple numbers on a bicycle - such as in the photo of the Look bike above - try searching for just one of the numbers at a time. Searching for eitherM4106I9CA1 or 200910427-2A will find the bike.
We do close serial matching - bikes with serial numbers that are close to the serial you entered are shown below the matching results under the heading 'Serial Numbers Close to...' - given a search of a serial number with a couple numbers/letters that are different or missing.
We do not currently do partial serial searches. If you search for 1234, you will only find bikes with serial numbers of 1234 and serials close to that - not a bike with serial number of 12345689.